Virtual Bart

Virtual Bart

Just when you thought that Bart Nightmare was terrible, this game makes it look like it's nothing in comparison.

Genre(s):	Action Party
Platform(s):	Super Nintendo Entertainment System Sega Genesis Virtual Boy (cancelled)
Release Date:	SNES NA: September 1994 EU: 1994 Sega Genesis NA: October 1994 EU: 1994
Developer(s):	Sculptured Software
Publisher(s):	Acclaim Entertainment
Predecessor:	The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare

Virtual Bart is a video game developed by Sculptured Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis in 1994. It is a game based on the American animated television series The Simpsons and features Bart Simpson and other Simpsons characters.

Plot

At a science fair at Springfield Elementary, as he is walking around the project made this by the institute, Bart wanders into a virtual reality machine and must complete all levels to escape from the machine.

Upon completing all levels, Bart will walk off stage, and Homer will give the VR a try. If the player loses all lives, however, the VR simulation will end and Bart will end up queasy, with Nelson adding insult to injury by doing his signature laugh offscreen.

Why It Virtually Sucks

For starter, this game is a massive downgrade from Bart's Nightmare, which wasn't a great game to begin with and was actually a terrible game, but here it is so bad of a game that it is impossible to describe how horrible Virtual Bart truly is.
It completely lacks any improvements over Bart's Nightmare, which was severely needed due to how bad that game already was, in fact as stated before, it is a massive step down due to a lot of things.
- Also, the gameplay got more simplified than Bart's Nightmare, and while it isn't a bad thing when hearing that, it is because it is just simply way too repetitive and even if the game are simplistic, you will always wish for it to end quickly so that you can play a better video game that you own.
The story is kind of terrible, since Bart gets trapped into the VR and had to complete all levels to escape (according to the manual, Martin was the one who made the device, and it was supposed to be harmless fun until Bart tampered with it), which is quite dumb and even if the game is about virtual world, this game make the story so bland that it is worthless, much like the story in Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! (though that game was released in 2005, 11 years after this game came out).
Horrible hit-detection that is so bad that it may be the worst one seen in a 1994 game, to the point of being potentially a rival to the hit-detection of The Ren & Stimpy Show: Time Warp (which was also a horrible game and was developed by Sculptured Software as well), this is especially true with the games Baby Bart and Dino Bart.
The mini games here are even worse than those of Bart's Nightmare and are so bad that they could had their own articles of pages here but we will instead list their bad qualities in this page with the sub pointers, and it will be extremely long to list so be prepared to see all of the flaws in the games (note that some of the pointers such as the hit-detection and controls might be repeated in both this section and the page itself).
1. Dino Bart
  1. The controls are incredibly bad since they are stiff and clunky, and they are very unresponsive, as well as being delayed, making the game almost unplayable due to how bad they are.
  2. Horrible difficulty spike, you will often get hits by projectiles that are almost impossible to dodge, and because of this, it has a lot of artificial difficulty and makes the mini game horribly frustrating thanks to how bad it is.
  3. Atrocious level design that is somehow even worse than all of the other bad Simpsons games developed by Acclaim, as the platforms are placed in a horrible order, and because of this, it may be the worst level design of this entire game along with the horrible game that is Baby Bart.
  4. Horrible gameplay that is even worse than the NES Simpsons games, which we're already bad enough but this is where it is the Simpsons platforming at it's worst.
  5. The platforming sections are absolutely horrendous, as sometime you might think that it's that platform where you need to jump on but instead, it is the wrong platform and you die.
2. Baby Bart
  1. The controls are very slippery and are very unresponsive, even more than in Dino Bart, so prepare to play an annoying and almost unplayable game, not helping the level design.
  2. The level design is incredibly terrible and somehow even worse than in Dino Bart, since it isn't designed with the gameplay of this mini game in mind, and because of that, you will often fail a jump and will get automatically a game over.
  3. Awful enemies and platforms placements, that are even worse than in Dino Bart.
3. Class Picture
  1. If you hit any of the adults (Mrs. Krabappel, Principal Skinner, Groundskeeper Willie, Chief Wiggum), you automatically lose the mini-game.
  2. Poor controls, although they are slighly better than the other mini games.
  3. After hitting every student, Bart moons the camera in the prototype,
  4. Hitting Milhouse with a tomato/egg is mean-spirited and could possibly ruin his friendship with Bart. While it makes sense to hit Nelson (as he was more of a bully to Bart at the time), there is no reason for Bart to hit his own best friend, and it shows that the developers likely didn't watch the show.
4. Mt. Splashmore
  1. The controls are very slippery, as it is very hard to control Bart in this stage, And because of that, you might choose the tunnel you doesn't want to choose because of how bad the controls are.
  2. It's hard to know whether to take the left or right tunnel, because you have to pause at an exact moment to see which way the arrows on Groundskeeper Willie's suit point to.
  3. It is probably the absolute worst case of difficulty spike in this game since it entirely relies on luck and not with skill, to the point of being extremely annoying to play and the only way to complete that level without much difficulty is to do save states.
5. Doomsday Bart
  1. It plays a lot like the Road Rash games, but is watered down in a possible attempt to make it more kid-friendly.
6. Pig Bart
  1. The nonlinear level design makes it easy to get lost, and it veers into Wayne's World levels of terrible, but somehow is even worse than that game that is without a doubt slightly better than this game, which is quite an accomplishment due to how bad Wayne's World was on 16-bit console.
For some weird reasons, the Baby Bart mini game doesn't had any game over sequences, which might hint that the game is extremely rushed considering that all of the other mini games had them, though at least they added the endings.
The game over sequences of each games (with one exception being Class Picture) range from mediocre to extremely disturbing, to the point of being somehow worse than the game over in Bart's Nightmare (in which it was already incredibly mean-spirited), this include:
- Dino Bart involve Bart being dead and we see his bones of dinosaur, and while it isn't the worst because of Pig Bart, it still is quite disturbing if you are a young child.
- Pig Bart involve a snack that resemble Bart head and get eated by Homer in a snack that had his head, which imply that Homer did eat his own son, which is incredibly disturbing and mean-spirited, and would even give nightmares to children due to how bad it is.
- Doomsday Bart had Bart getting his arms stretched and possibly got his arms breaked, since in real life, if bikers did this, then you will get your arms breaked or severely injured, or worst, getting your arms to be breaked for the rest of your life and thus would get you being disabled.
- Mt. Splashmore is quite funny to see but it can still disturb some peoples considering that Bart falling down very high and might had dying when falling.
Poor logic: In the Mt. Splashmore mini game, there's some part of the tunnels that are open and you can fall, is it supposed to be unfinished or it was made so that it can secretly kill peoples ?
The graphics, while not bad and are actually decent, are flawed and are a massive downgrade from Bart's Nightmare (which was one of the best looking game of the franchise).
- Some of the sprites, such as the Pigs and Bart in some of the mini games look very awful and feel like they we're Taken from Bart's Nightmare art style but downgraded just to make this game seem worse than that game.
- Some of the backgrounds are very undetailled, and look like an early Sega Genesis game rather than a 1994 Sega Genesis/SNES game, games that we're released the same years had better backgrounds than this, such as Animaniacs on SNES and especially the Sega Genesis version along with Super Bomberman 2.
- Doomdays Bart in the SNES version look quite awful, like if the world was screwed around by peoples and is covered with garbages or at least, got remade with some very ugly design and colors, the Sega Genesis version of that stage howewer look fine.
The game is unfaithful to the show, right to the Class Picture mini game where you had to hit Milhouse, most of the main characters except Bart and Homer appear in the cutscenes, and the fact that the mini games had nothing to do with the show, and the mini games didn't even try to be based on something from the show.
The real game over sequence not only mock you for failing the game due to Nelson lauching at Bart, but also it is disturbing since if you read the manual, Bart is actually trapped inside the VR and might never come back, and that why it is quite disturbing, although you can know this only if you read the manual, if you didn't, you might just think that Bart just failed.
The soundtrack on both versions is extremely bland, and sound like it was rushed, and they are incredibly repetitive, not to mention that it feel like it was made so that it is the worst musics of the entire Simspons franchise, even the NES games trilogy had better soundtrack than this game, and it's overall a massive downgrade from the soundtrack of Bart's Nightmare.
- This is especially true with the Sega Genesis version which had instruments that make it even more bland despite being a bit catchy, although the quality of the soundtrack is a little improved from the Sega Genesis version of Bart's Nightmare, which had even more awful sound quality than this.
- As for the SNES version, the soundtrack can be somewhat catchy but that doesn't save it from being generic and bland, since it is once again very repetitive and some of the musics are even ear bleeding, which is sad when you consider that Bart's Nightmare had a great soundtrack for it's SNES version.
Terrible sound effects.
The voice acting, despite being made by some of the actors from the show, was very poorly done and is extremely annoying considering that for the most parts, Bart always repeat his lines in some of the mini games, and you will get them stuck in your head in a horrible way, also Bart voice doesn't even sound like him, due to obviously being compressed.
Much like the predecessor, this game is extremely frustrating and tedious to play despite that the mini games are unique, but well, they once again made them so frustrating that it failed miserably from being an awesome game but here as stated before, it is even worse since there isn't any charms from the previous entry on the 16-bit consoles.
- Mt. Splashmore is definitely the worst case of frustration in this game, since as said in a previous pointer, it rely entirely on luck and for the most parts, you fail and because of this mini game, you will likely lose all of your lifes and then it's game over.
- Pig Bart is another instance of the game being extremely frustrating, right to the level design being incredibly confusing, and because of the horrible enemies placements and the horribly hard task to rescue the other pigs, and thus making this mini to be one of the worst of the game, which is quite an accomplishment due to how bad all of the mini games are.
- Baby Bart is easily the worst case of frustration in this game, and for even more reasons than the other games included in this, those problems include:
  - The controls make the game even harder to complete, and the fact that the hit-detection of the woods are terrible, this make it for an unplayable game and an extremely hard game that is even harder than the other mini games.
  - The fact that you can fall off and then die, and you had one life lost after that, and you will lose them a lot, thank to how bad the difficulty spike is.
  - The awful obstacles placements that make this level very hard and they are placed everywhere, and because of that, you will lose the game a lot.
- Class Picture can be a little frustrating, although not as much as the other, and this is mostly that if you hit an adult, you automatically lose, and the adults sometime are placed right where there's a kid to hit, which often is annoying.
- Dino Bart isn't as frustrating as most other but it suffer from the fact that much like Doraemon on the Famicom, you get hit from everything and that make the game annoying to play because of that, it also include awful platforming sections that are barely any possible to know what platforms you had to jump on.
The game is extremely short, as it is beatable around 25-35 minutes, which is even shorter than Bart's Nightmare (in which that game take 40 minutes to beat).
Terrible ending: While Bart did escape from the VR, Homer wanted to try it and he is trapped inside it, and this even could cause a cliffhanger since it feel like the game didn't ended and that there's would be a sequel to this but with Homer, or at least had a secind story mode where you play Homer mini games instead, this also include such missed oportunities despite that there's already a lot of them that are missed on in this game.
Unlike Bart's Nightmare, there's absolutely no replay values and you will likely never play it ever again after beating it due to how bad it is, and there's isn't any extra contents such as other playable characters or even some new mini games.
Overall, this game did trying to be better than Bart's Nightmare but it did fail miserably and ended up being one of, id not the worst Simspons game ever made, and it ended up being an incredibly unplayable and tedious game, thanks for how poorly designed it is.

Redeeming Qualities

The game has a Practice Mode to hone your skills on each minigame; it's good to use this if you're struggling with any of them.
The cutscenes before a stage are pretty good and funny, and is in fact the only improvement over Bart's Nightmare, which had poor cutscenes in comparison and doesn't had any of them either at the beginning, at the end or even for a game over sequence that are not present in that game.
- Also, they are quite impressive for a Sega Genesis/SNES game in which these systems barely had any games that had animated cutscenes, also the art style is pretty good and faithful to the show, and might be the only thing that is faithful to the show in this game.
Although the graphics are flawed, they still are pretty decent for the time, though Bart's Nightmare look way better than this by a long miles, this is especially true with the Sega Genesis version that for one time had a better color palette than it's SNES counterpart.
The endings are mostly decent, and all of them end well.
Doomsday Bart and Class Picture are the only decent and/or the least bad of the minigames, especially Class Picture that is fairly fun to play despite the poor controls, and it is mostly one of the few moments of the game that is funny.
The concept of this game is actually good but the execution was horrible.
The box art is very good once again, and it tell us what game there's in the box, so at least it doesn't lie about this game contents.

Reception

Ratings


Publication	Score
Hyper	60% (Sega Genesis)^[1]
Total!	39/100 (SNES)^[2]
M! Games	67% (Sega Genesis and SNES)^[3]
Electronic Games	B+ (SNES)^[4]

Critical Reception

Much like it's predecessor, Virtual Bart received negative reviews by howewer this game received overwhelmingly negative reviews by critics and gamers, and is considered to be possibly one of the worst Simsons game ever to date.

Critics mostly praised the concept and graphics of the game but criticized every other things about it such as the gameplay, soundtrack and difficulty balance.

In fact, this game was so bad that unlike Bart's Nightmare, this game is almost completely forgotten about nowadays and there isn't as much popular youtubers that do a video on it then Bart's Nightmare, although despite that, the game is still fairly know about due to some big youtubers playing this but it isn't as well know as Bart's Nightmare.

Electronic Gaming Monthly scored the Super NES version a 4.8 out of 10, commenting that "The control is awful (like on the dinosaur stage), the stages unappealing, and the whole thing seems rushed."

Reviewing the Genesis port, GamePro praised it as being "[virtually] identical" to the SNES original. They commented of the game itself that "The humorous variations on Bart, different game play (including behind-the-Bart racing and a shooter level), and cameos of Simpsons nitwits all combine to keep the action intriguing and funny.

On Gamefaqs, the SNES version had a score of 2.55 based on 105 users^[5], and the Sega Genesis version got a higher score of 2.87 based on 95 users^[6]

Videos

Trivia

It is the first Simpsons game released for home consoles to feature recorded dialogue from the show's whole cast besides Bart.
A Virtual Boy port of this game was planned, however it was never released because of the failure of the console (because of the display showing four shades of red, making people have altered vision, and making people hurt their necks).^[7]
Although the gameplay between both versions is largely identical, the difference in hardware between the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System results in a very different presentation. The color palette between the two systems is different, and the sound chips between the two systems use different instrumentation for the music. The Super Nintendo version is able to take advantage of the console's Mode 7 system, while the Sega Genesis version contains more recorded dialogue compared to its Super Nintendo counterpart.
In School Picture, Ralph Wiggum appears to be in Mrs. Krabappel's class where Bart belongs, yet in the series he belongs to Ms. Hoover's class with Lisa.

References

Comments

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[1] ttps://archive.org/details/hyper-010/page/52/mode/2up?q=%22virtual+bart%22

[2] ttps://archive.org/details/total-35-november-1994/page/64/mode/2up?q=%22virtual+bart%22

[3] ttps://archive.org/details/MANIAC.N014.1994.12/MANIAC.N014.1994.12-DURiAN/page/n89/mode/2up?q=%22virtual+bart%22

[4] ttps://archive.org/details/electronic-games-1994-11z/page/114/mode/2up?q=%22The+Lion+King%22+genesis

[5] ttps://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588661-virtual-bart

[6] ttps://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586460-virtual-bart

[7] ttps://cancelled-games.fandom.com/wiki/Virtual_Bart_(Virtual_Boy)

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Virtual Bart

Contents

Plot

Why It Virtually Sucks

Redeeming Qualities

Reception

Ratings

Critical Reception

Videos

Trivia

References

Comments

Navigation menu

Virtual Bart

Plot

Why It Virtually Sucks

Redeeming Qualities

Reception

Ratings

Critical Reception

Videos

Trivia

References

Comments

Navigation menu

Search